Product category:
Testing and Calibration Services and Information
News Release from: Sira | Subject: Test rig development services
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 29 November 2001
Test service gets "results on the table
quicker"
Sira Test and Certification has provided testing services for Urenco (Capenhurst) to assist its investigation into the advantages of constant power versus self-regulating heating cables.
Sira Test and Certification has provided testing services for Urenco (Capenhurst) to assist its investigation into the advantages of constant power versus self-regulating heating cables The Urenco Group provides a high quality, cost effective and reliable uranium enrichment service to nuclear power utilities worldwide
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 10 Apr 2000 at 8.00am (UK)
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The problem being addressed by Sira for Urenco was the maintenance of a process gas, uranium hexafluoride, at a closely maintained temperature.
Part of the existing plant would benefit from improvement in the control of the gas at this temperature, plus there could be cost savings in reducing control circuits.
Stuart Wilson, an engineer with Simon Carves in Manchester, drew up the test specification, which required the pipe temperature to be monitored over a variety of process air temperatures and insulation types.
Sira manufactured a new test rig with thermocouples at various locations monitored by a Fluke Hydra data logger.
One early problem to overcome was the very high air flow required, which had to be forced through a 1" bore section of a flexible pipe.
Early designs for the test rig produced by Mike Wilson, Sira's Senior Laboratory Technician, relied on re-circulating air through a heater to achieve a stable process gas temperature flowing through the pipes.
Mike changed the design to utilise Sira's high flow air compressor, to provide the correct flow, coupled with a specially manufactured heater in front of the test rig inlet pipe, to achieve the correct temperature.
"It was essential to achieve a stable temperature for air entering the test rig, otherwise interpreting the results would have been difficult" said Mike Wilson.
The fluctuation in inlet air temperature, +/-0.75C, was successfully achieved through the use of Mike's specially designed and constructed temperature control circuit.
"Sira's expertise has proved a very useful resource which has given us results on the table quicker than we could have achieved using Urenco's in-house resources" remarked Stuart Wilson.
Sira undertakes a range of test, calibration, training and certification services on behalf of manufacturers and users of industrial and scientific instruments.
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